Patient-Centered Care Approach

The Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI.org) defines patient centered care as care that is truly patient-centered, considers patients’ cultural traditions, their personal preferences and values, their family situations, and their lifestyles. It makes the patient and their loved ones an integral part of the care team who collaborate with health care professionals in making clinical decisions. Patient-centered care puts responsibility for important aspects of self-care and monitoring in patients’ hands — along with the tools and support they need to carry out that responsibility. Patient-centered care ensures that transitions between providers, departments, and health care settings are respectful, coordinated, and efficient. When care is patient centered, unneeded and unwanted services can be reduced.¹ 

An Integrative Medicine Services Program (IMSP) is an excellent example of patient centered care. Specifically, an IMSP makes the “…patient and their loved ones an integral part of the care team…” by working with them to use the integrative therapies that will work best for the patient and the patient’s problem. The patient is the key decision maker in IMSP therapy selection. In addition, IMSP clearly “puts responsibility for important aspects of self-care and monitoring in patients hands…”. In an IMSP and the CAM therapies it contains, patients are often responsible for continuing the therapy outside of the care setting. This is true for most therapies like yoga, tai chi, and meditation, to name a few. Listening to and understanding patient needs from a cultural, value-driven, and lifestyle perspective is the underlying theme in all CAM therapies. The IMSP is also a good place to build patient confidence in their abilities to stick to a plan. The initial stages of the therapy usually begin at the IMSP site and, as patients increase their confidence and become responsible for practice on their own time, the activity can transition to home. And, when patients have a need for more structure or encouragement, they can return to the IMSP.

A component of the patient centered care approach to the IMSP is providing community education and marketing of the program to patients or prospective patients. Opening the education about CAM therapies to the community and offering classes like yoga, tai chi, and meditation lays the groundwork for satisfied patients as the organization begins building relationships during the time when healthcare consumers are well. In a healthy state, the consumer can better articulate her preferences and lifestyle needs to the organization. And, given sufficient demand, the healthcare consumer’s feedback can be the source of positive change and evolution for the IMSP and the healthcare organization as a whole.